I think you need to be flexible.
Not everyone CAN be. Employees have lives and other responsibilities. Children, elderly relatives that need care, homes to run, and frankly they deserve a life too!
Something I’ve noticed that never used to be the case is this ridiculous “rolling shifts” or shifts only being told to the employee weekly crap!
It serves nobody really I can’t even understand how it serves the employer!
Employees need to be able to plan their lives eg a parent with a variable unpredictable shift pattern will find childcare incredibly hard to organise and pay for!
These and zero hours bullshit mean employers essentially have employees “on call” without actually paying them to be so.
It’s a piss take!
Then these same employers also get shitty if their PART TIME employees who are in need of full time pay DARE to consider an additional job with someone else
These are people not Fucking robots!
and my DN who runs a company tells me the people who wont do more than 16 hours because it affects their benefits. Surely benefits should never be a choice?
Have you ever had to manage a household budget under these conditions? There’s a huge problem with a gap between under 16 hours and over 16 hours where people can be significantly worse off as a result of trying to work more hours. They’re effectively penalised for doing so.
In theory UC was supposed to eliminate that problem - but then the tories got a hold of it!
My dd has 3 jobs at the moment as well as being a full time student. She can be “flexible” and a good employee at the moment as she:
Is cheap (not yet 21)
Young and relatively fit and healthy
Has nobody else dependent on her
Has no bills to pay (she’s staying with family who are happy to cover roof and board, for which she is extremely appreciative and contributes at home in other ways inc providing childcare)
Is living somewhere with pretty good transport links plus relatives willing and able to give her lifts if she’s worked late etc
She’s not even yet 20 yet apparently has a greater understanding of why it’s easier (although not “easy” with almost 1000 applicants per position) for someone like her to get work than it is for someone who is
More expensive to pay
Older and may be less fit and able for certain jobs (many nmw jobs are very physical)
Someone who has to organise and pay for childcare or has other caring responsibilities, and is therefore limited the hours they can do. As someone who’s been a childminder myself I’m astonished that STILL so few childcare providers offer hours outside “office hours” essentially. So many still only offer mon-fri 7am (if you’re lucky! Many it’s still 8am starts!) and 6pm finishes! I’m astonished not only because I know the demand is there but because it makes no business sense to me, they could make a fortune if they offered weekends alone! And so many still close on bank holidays etc at the drop of a hat!
Responsible for covering the rent/mortgage and other household bills so needs a decent amount of income
Unable to drive or perhaps use public transport or lives somewhere the public transport is shit or very expensive (usually both in rural locations!)
Everybody’s circumstances are different
and remember that the official number of vacancies includes part time (I've seen as little as 8 hours a week) regularly 2 hour contracts around here - but these are well known high street employers and it’s not a lack of hours needing covered it’s so that’s the contracted hours if they have to pay redundancies etc BUT they then have a combination of many employees and give them loads of “overtime” - they’re dodging their responsibilities under employment law
If a 19 year old can grasp reality someone old enough to be their mother ought to be able to as well.
But frequently on mn there are older posters who ought to know better on several issues and yet are oblivious to or in denial of the facts.